Excavations at site of Kremlin presidium promise rare archaeological findings

December 22, 2015, 22:12 UTC+3MOSCOWWhat makes this excavation so valuable is that the archaeologists will get an all-round and multidimensional impression about the life of the Moscow Kremlin, an expert explains

MOSCOW, December 22 /TASS/. Unprecedented excavations at the site of the Kremlin presidium also known as building 14 of the Kremlin promise rare archaeological findings. The UNESCO-protected building located in the territory of Kremlin museums is to be pulled down before the summer of 2016, Alexander Kolpakov, the Russian president’s property manager, said in a TASS interview on Tuesday.

"All possible work opportunities will be created for archaeologists who will carry out the archaeological excavations, unprecedented in scale and significance," Kolpakov said noting that UNESCO had given green light to the works.

In the summer of 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested dismantling the Kremlin administrative building 14, which was built in the 1930s and is now closed for renovation. Apart from the presidential administration services, the building also houses the Federal Guard Service and the Commandant’s Office of the Moscow Kremlin.

The archaeologists who will replace government bureaucrats will get down to excavations as soon as building 14 has been pulled down, Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Devyatov, a spokesman for the Federal Guard Service, told TASS. The archaeologists intend to bury themselves almost 10 metres deep in the ground where they hope to make a lot of interesting findings.

"The location of building 14 — close to the sacred Spasskiye (Saviour’s) Gates — the most important gates in the Moscow Kremlin — is unique. It used to be a densely built-up area, and the cultural level there accumulated for about 800 years," Devyatov explained. According to him, the excavation works can be carried out at a depth of more than 8 meters. "What makes this excavation so valuable is that the archaeologists will get an all-round and multidimensional impression about the life of the Moscow Kremlin," the expert said adding the Kremlin had never seen such full-scale archaeological works before.